I will admit right now that I’m not a huge LEGO Hero Factory fan. Although I really like mechs, I prefer the ones made of standard LEGO elements. I just don’t care for the large, un-LEGO-ish pieces LEGO Hero Factory sets are mostly made of. The only elements I do appreciate are the helmet pieces and weapons – in otherwords the pieces that give the oversized LEGO Hero Factory characters their personality and coolness. So I was really excited to see that in the 2014 LEGO Hero Factory sets the characters got shrunk down to just about minifigure size. 🙂
In all of the 2014 LEGO Hero Factory sets you will find these smaller heroes, and they ride various mechs to defeat the badguys in the storyline called “Invasion from Below”. If you are into LEGO Hero Factory, I think you would like the mechs as they do look pretty awesome, however what I was really looking forward to was the unique armor and helmet pieces that are compatible with regular LEGO minifigures. So let’s look at those…
So far I only got one of the 2014 LEGO Hero Factory minifigs (EVO – the yellow hero) from the smallest set, the #44015 LEGO Hero Factory EVO Walker. After assembling the set I played around with the new minifig some and liked it so much that I’m definitely getting the rest of the heroes, probably in multiplies. As minifigure-scale robots they are excellent; the pieces used for their assembly, the attachment points for various tools and weapons, and the articulation are all just perfect and allow a lot of different posing and customization.
The next question with these mini-size LEGO Hero Factory heroes is if their armor and helmets would fit regular minifigures. And yes, they do! Take a look at the pictures here, all taken by Singo, a LEGO fan from Singapore, and member of BrickLink.com, the Online LEGO Marketplace.
The LEGO Hero Factory helmets fit regular LEGO minifigures particularly well. And because they all have a different design and color, they provide a lot of options.
The LEGO Hero Factory armor pieces also fit regular minifigs, although in my opinion they are a tad off with the shoulder armor being so high up, but they do fit and could look good with the right combination. Interesting to note that on the LEGO Hero Factory minifigs these armor pieces are placed on LEGO skeleton torsos, which provide the core of all of the LEGO Hero Factory characters. Pretty clever…
If you are interested in collecting the 2014 LEGO Hero Factory sets and would like to play around with the new mini-style heroes, they should be available at most LEGO retailers by now, and you can also get them at the Online LEGO Shop. They are not expensive at all, most in the $10-$15 range.
There is also a LEGO Hero Factory polybag, which Huw from Brickset unearthed; the #40116 LEGO Hero Factory Hero Mini Model, featuring BREEZ in a small mech. This polybag is still very hard to find, but hopefully it will be more widely available in the near future. Both the minifig and the mech look great, aren’t they? 😀
What do you think? How do you like the 2014 LEGO Hero Factory sets? Do you like the smaller version of the characters? And how about the vehicles? Oh, and what about the beasts? They are a bit too far out for my taste, but they seem to be providing some interesting play opportunities as well. Feel free to share your thoughts in the comment section below! 😉
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I don’t really like Hero Factory… and I just don’t think these look cool.
But, who else thinks that they look like those Bionicle robot thingys… or were they Exo-Force? I can’t remember.
Its Exo- Force. I NEED THAT MINI MECH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I don’t plan on getting the Flying Beast and I want all the heroes.
Exo-Force was the standard brick-built mechs with minifigure pilots that had wild anime hair. Hero Factory overall has been the toy follow-up to Bionicle, with the technic plus ball-joint construction and each wave containing a team of heroes with virtually identical construction. Chima dipped its toe into this as well.
The “Invasion from Below” sets are the first Hero Factory sets without motorcycles to really tempt me, it’s a good juggle of the format to make the sets be giant mechs and monsters rather than the heroes themselves. But really, I gave up on Bionicle a couple years into it and I think I’m still burned out on the technic plus ball-joint construction type sets and the limits inherent to them. Building the Chima ones reminded me of that.
Eh…I’ve never really liked Hero Factory. Maybe it was my disappointment of Bionicle dying and Hero Factory trying (I stress TRYING) to take it’s place. I got one Hero Factory set shortly after it came out, and have been so disappointed with it that I haven’t bought another since. “Jay NRG PWR DX ZX” (Wow, what a name!) might be referring to the Exo-Toa from the original Bionicle line (Gosh I loved those things).
Did he just say “Bionicle robot thingys”……..
I personally never really got into Hero Factory, mostly cuz all my Bionicle parts didn’t mesh well with Hero Factory pieces…. and parly cuz when they ended Bionicle they ended part of my childhood *sniffle* OK, enough wallowing in misery, I like the helmets, but the chest-plates seem just a bit oversized, and maybe a bit too tall. But everything is awesome, so I’m not one to judge! =D
I like hero factory but not realy this theme but I do plan on getting the summer set the crystal beast and the spliter beast
I don’t like Hero Factory too, it’s simply not much LEGO :). But these new sets are more interesting, I’m going to have some robot for minifigs world 🙂
That’s exactly what I plan to use them too! Robots for my minifigs! 😀
Yeah!
awesome! I WANT ONE OF THESE SO BAD! and the helmets are awesome! I wonder where you could find this polybag, maybe a LEGO store, Toy’s R US, Barns and noble? (okay, I doubt they would be at barns and noble.)
I think they would have it at Target. Barnes&Noble carries the actual sets, I’ve seen them, but I don’t think they have polybags.
If I remember correctly that polybag has only been spotted in the UK so far. Hopefully it will come over to this side of the pond too, because the lime-green robot is my favorite. Also, although I don’t like Hero Factory, that mech is pretty sweet. 😛
Toy Hub Direct, an online (and maybe physical) toy store in Scotland. You spend 15 of their currency on Hero Factory and get it for free.
Oh, yes! I remember now! Thanks for clarifying that! I still hope it will be more widely available! 🙂
what? only in the UK! Lucky them.
I absolutely had no interest in Hero Factory, or anything with technic mechs, until this year. But these look really cool, I like the minifig-sized figures. 🙂 I plan to get the Splitter Beast, and possibly the Evo XL Machine, unless I can find that polybag. 😕 I really want the lightsaber blades.
I might get one just for the helmet!
The helmets look great on regular minifigs and that was my original plan with them, but I actually really like the robot bodies too.
Looks more like aliens more than anything, love the armor and helmets though.
Yes, they could be aliens too. I don’t think I will be using them as aliens though. They are too cool! 😛
Off Topic, but the 2014 TMNT sets just became available on Lego shop! 🙂 This one kind of flew under the radar, but it’s there too: http://brickset.com/sets/79122-1/Shredder-s-Lair-Rescue
Are you going to have an article on this, admin? 😉
You must have read my mind because I just finished writing an article about it. It won’t be published until next Monday though as this week is already full. 😀
I think it was good idea for LEGO to make them minifig scale it makes them fit into the LEGO world much better 🙂
I totally agree! 🙂
I thought it was cool that they made the characters minifigure size because I collect minifigures, and now I can have a character in my minifigure collection that I have two other versions of (Furno, if anyone was wondering). I got some old Knights’ Kingdom II (2005 original release, new condition) minifigures for the same reason. I was surprised how little I needed to spend on those from ebay. I got all four of the good guys for less than $20 including shipping, which worked out to about $3.80-something each, plus it was four separate auctions, which makes the price even more surprising. I was very excited about that, so I thought I’d share.
Brad, a lot of people don’t like Knights Kingdom II so probably that’s why you were able to get them cheap. I also have some; the large figures and some of the helmets that I really liked.
I have all six buildable action figures from the first wave, and I liked them when I got them, but I don’t do much more than collecting minifigures now.
The only hero factory I got is Breez from the first wave and stormer 2.0
And I want one of them for the feet/claws because they seem quite interesting, weren’t they used in the Nindroid MechDragon
I like Hero Factory, but I don’t buy many sets of it. However, I might have to get a couple for the minifig heroes.
I never really liked Hero Factory for same reason as you, plus they’ve replaced Bionicle, which I loved. But I like those minifigs – I’m definitely getting Rocka, as I’m planning to make his helmet a fancy new head for my golems (I am mostly a fantasy builder). And I’m happy that they’re “recycling” the Zamor spheres, especially with this cool new design (plus there’s one on the cheapest set 🙂 ).